What's the biggest single thing you've done to improve your finances?

[OldMotherHubbardsBigBottom]

I'm starting to get control of my finances and I'm curious as to what others have done to improve their relationship with money.

I almost feel like I tell my money what to do rather than the other way round- still a bit of ground to cover before I'm finally there though.

What did you do/are you doing?

Last month I gave up alcohol. That saved a good bit
This month I’m giving up take-aways as well.

Keeping a v close eye on my finances of late

Most of these suggestions are piffle. Like downloading an app.

Some are good. The best ones are about changing lives. Money then follows.

There is a massive difference between a cost and an investment.

Got married to DH. He landed a very well paid role shortly after we got married, and we've never had to worry about finances since. I used to be a single mum on benefits and lived very frugally. Although I treat myself more these days, we haven't fully upgraded our lifestyle to our income, so we've been able to plough our increased income into long term investments, pensions, clearing the mortgage (we were mortgage free before 40). Still shop at Lidl, only buy clothes in the sales, don't run a car, only use public transport, and rarely have coffee shop drinks or takeaways.

@Itsrebekahvardysaccount We pay for fuel out of our play money, which sounds crazy but we have a car each and DH uses his for work and gets reimbursed for fuel so it's easier to keep separate.

We pay too much into the food/bill account, probably by £100 per month, that covers a big shop, like if we bulk buy wine or beer, etc or if a bill is bigger that expected. Doing it like this means we don't have to worry about bills, its made life much easier.

I remember my DGM used to say pay for the roof over your head and the food on your plate before anything, and it's true.

We have a couple of credit cards but we only use for online orders or big purchases/holidays and pay them off. It bothers me if I owe money.

I will get paid on Monday. And for the first time I can remember, I will have money left over after everything has been covered. Including a little bit of fun money for me, savings, regular bills, upcoming big things that I'm putting a little away for each month etc etc... this has NEVER happened before.

I feel like I'm finally getting control. It's such a relief!

I see what you mean Champagne. Such wise words from your grandmother. I’m definitely going to have a big rethink about how we do things. Sick of always playing catch up.

@Itsrebekahvardysaccount honestly I've been so sceptical about YNAB. It seemed a bit complicated. But if nothing else, it's made me do the "Envelope System" that @redeyetonowheregood describes (although not with physical money- just mentally allocating money into little separate "pots")

And this has made me have a massive mental shift on what I spend. I don't even feel hard done by- think that in the past I was simply spending without ever considering whether I actually had the money for that specific purchase.

This last couple of months, I've actually thought "if I buy this £40 item, as I only have allocated £25 to it then it means that I will have to take money from x pot" or "I have allocated £20 to this pot, and this only costs £8 so I'm covered, it's fine go ahead!"

Sounds so simple but it is actually a huge change in thinking for me. Bit sad really that I've got to 43 and not understood how to budget until recently!

@OldMotherHubbardsBigBottom Sounds like you are well on the right track now, well done.

You’ll. price the biggest different is people actually looking at their bank accounts regularly and keeping an eye on what comes out what you spent and more importantly what you have left:

I have a week until pay day, one big shop at the weekend plus a driving test to pay for.

I have a hotel to pay for as well just after pay day, so rather than thinking Yeah! I have £300 left and buy myself X it’s actually nearly all taken anyway. So I won’t have any left after all.

Op it's been a revelation to me as well!!

You know you are not robbing essential to pay for tat. You know whether you can have treat at weekend... You are in control.

It's a great feeling when the envelopes start to slowly accumulate.

Paying off DH's student loans.

Keeping our careers developing- asking for raises, putting ourselves forward for promotions, moving for opportunities etc.

Moving out of London!

Monzo getting some flak on Watchdog this evening. Locking people out of accounts for no reason, taking weeks/months to sort out. Families who needed their rent money or to buy food directed to food banks by Monzo. Went beyond the normal money laundering checks, lots of people had no explanation.

The first time I heard of Monzo was on this thread. And now on Watchdog.

Downloaded the 'good budget' app. Your money comes in and then you separate it into different envelopes for each category of spends. I am much more in control of my finances now.

Cancel Christmas, we do presents for kids only no other adults.

We also book lunch out which is extravagant but it makes the day seem special and more importantly means we don’t need to shop for anything else food wise at all bar a few packs of mince pies

@RainbowCookie.

You say “cancel Christmas”

But as far as I can tell you just don’t buy for adults?

You buy for children; go out for Christmas lunch. That’s not cancelling Christmas!

Overpaid the mortgage, been mortgage free for years now. Too k lodgers to help this and still do occasionally.
Never buy new cars- current one is fine and still going at 16 years old. Cycle whenever possible.
Find best savings accounts and review regularly.

YNAB

Shopping at Aldi and meal planning and setting a budget for food

2/3 accounts - one for direct debits and one for everyday spending, 3rd for savings.

Not buying endless unnecessary crap.

Another YNAB user here, we’ve been doing it for 6years - the first year when we didn’t spend Jan-March paying off money spent the previous Oct-Dec was amazing

I like it less now it’s linked to the accounts and you don’t have to manually input but the free tutorials are also brilliant

@lovemenorca well of course it’s not cancelled completely, I have 2 kids! It was a a play on words from a successful John Grisham book and film, where they cut out all the crazy pointless excess.
Why can’t you say a thing on here without people trying to score points over semantics 🙄

Go read the Christmas thread and you’ll see how people are spending a fortune on buying crap for people they don’t see from one year to the next and don’t really like. They also spend a fortune on buying a ton of food that they don’t need.
Only when we hugely scaled back Christmas (yes not cancelled completely for any pedants) did we realise what a complete an utter waste it was.

Stop buying my lunch in work. Massive difference.

Re cancelling Xmas... We just save what we can towards it.
It's all very budgeted so we would never over spend, or at least not by much.
But that money is Xmas money.

Having said that we don't really buy for the adults anyway, small token gifts, and there are no dc but ours but no one buys for our dc either.... So.. It's always been cheap compared to other people

Oh yes, taking own food to,work!!

No hair cuts, I tie my hair in pony tail and cut it. No nails.

My treats for special are blow drys.

And waxing. I can't do that myself but I'd like to try if I could use hot wax.
We have always got so much free from the free cycle, esp when we were really struggling and second hand.

Big ones-
Degree
Professional qualifications
Full time work

Small ones:
Never buy a takeaway coffee.
Always take my own lunch to work
Rarely buy “stuff” - if I do it’s from the sales and I shop around big style
Learnt how to do my own gel nails.
Invite friends round to dinner instead of going out. We take it in turns.
No gym membership - walk to and from work so I do 20000 steps a day
Buy books from charity shops
Cook from scratch most days
Meal plan

Gave up smoking a million percent sorted my overdraft and never looked back (16years ago)

Being a vegan and veggie household has really helped. We no longer spend £20+ a week on meat.

Using Monzo. I use it as my spending account so that I don't touch my current account which is for Bills and savings.

Using topcashback on purchases I make. You have to be careful not to make purchases just to get cashback, but using it for things i am going to buy, like car insurance, utility switches or genuine online shopping i can make a few £100 a year.

I agree about thinking about how much something would take to earn. My Nan taught me this and I always do this.